Georgia Trend Daily – June 14, 2023
June 14, 2023 Marietta Daily Journal
Gov. Kemp, DNR announce 2023 Forestry for Wildlife partners
Staff reports that Gov. Brian Kemp recognized three corporate forest landowners on June 13 for their stewardship and land management practices benefiting wildlife across Georgia. Weyerhaeuser, Forest Investment Associates and Georgia Power are the agency’s 2023 Forestry for Wildlife partners.
Rave Reviews: Takiyah Douse, interim administrator for the city of Augusta, on the Fifth Street Bridge; and inset, ACCG Director Dave Wills Photo WoodieWilliamsPhoto.com
June 14, 2023 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Six Georgia Counties: Innovate, Connect, Improve
Patty Rasmussen reports, whether amplifying neglected history or figuring out better ways to deliver health services, dislodging a massive backlog of court cases or turning a historic bridge into a park, revitalizing a downtown or starting an anti-litter campaign, Georgia counties are creating ingenious solutions to pressing problems. And they often do it with remarkably few resources.
June 14, 2023 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hartsfield-Jackson expands programs aimed at future aviation workforce
Kelly Yamanouchi reports that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is expanding its programs to attract more young people to aviation jobs, part of a broader effort in the industry to entice youths to become pilots, aircraft mechanics and other aviation professionals. The Atlanta airport’s summer youth employment program started this month with 114 local high school students assigned to a business unit in the Department of Aviation for training in work readiness and soft skills.
June 14, 2023 WABE
City of Tucker passes non-discrimination ordinance in a growing push for LGBTQ protections in Georgia
Jasmine Robinson reports that the City of Tucker voted to pass a sweeping non-discrimination ordinance at its Monday evening city council meeting, joining a growing number of other Georgia municipalities in protecting residents from discrimination in recent years. All six councilmembers voted in favor of the ordinance.
June 14, 2023 The Center Square
Georgia awards $15 million to expand high-speed internet
T.A. DeFeo reports that Georgia officials are moving forward with another $15 million in grants to expand broadband internet across the state. Officials said the grants, funded by money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, should improve internet connectivity in four Georgia counties.
June 14, 2023 State Affairs
With HOPE fully funded, how can Georgia students maximize their state scholarship options?
Jill Jordan Sieder reports that Moises Guzman Jr. is a 17-year-old, freshly minted honors graduate from Coffee High School in Douglas, a town in south Georgia with a population just shy of 12,000. He plans to study engineering and business at South Georgia State College this fall, with tuition fully covered by the Zell Miller Scholarship.
June 14, 2023 Georgia Recorder
Georgia’s rural hospitals use tax credit donations as Band-Aid
Aaleah McConnell reports that Jonathon Green says a tax credit program intended to help Georgia’s struggling rural health care system delivered $500,000 in donations last year to his Taylor Regional Hospital, money he used to upgrade imaging machines and other technology. Green, CEO of Taylor Health Group, says he could put more donated dollars to good use, but it is great that the tax credit “provides a dollar-for-dollar impact” that benefits both hospitals and taxpayers.
June 14, 2023 Gainesville Times
This new state law taking effect July 1 affects wake surfers and those on shoreline
Jeff Gill reports, wake surfer Brock Moody isn’t a big fan of “people on their docks yelling at you,” so he understands the rationale behind a new law setting a distance requirement for his sport. He’s speaking of a new Georgia law taking effect July 1 that requires operators of boats that create a wake capable of being surfed to be at least 200 feet from “virtually anything else,” Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokesman Mark McKinnon said.
June 14, 2023 Dalton Daily Citizen, CNHI News
Judge rebuffs Trump response to Fulton DA
Asia Ashley reports that a Georgia judge said Friday he has heard enough in the ongoing dispute between former president Donald J. Trump and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney denied a request from Trump who now wants to respond to the most recent court filing by Willis, who is investigating the former president and his allies for alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.
June 14, 2023 The Brunswick News
SGHS head appointed to House CON study committee
Taylor Cooper reports that Southeast Georgia Health System CEO Scott Raynes was appointed this month to a state House study community to look at modernizing the state’s Certificate of Need regulations on medical services. Raynes told The News on Thursday that he was honored by the appointment.
June 14, 2023 Capitol Beat News
State Senate study committee on CON begins work
Dave Williams reports that Georgia’s decades-old certificate of need (CON) law governing hospitals and health-care services has never achieved its intended purpose and should be reformed or scrapped altogether, witnesses told a state Senate study committee Tuesday. Congress passed the CON law in 1979 requiring applicants wishing to build a new hospital or provide new medical services to demonstrate a need in their community.
June 14, 2023 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. House conservatives end stalemate, allowing Clyde gun bill to pass
Tia Mitchell reports that a stalemate in the U.S. House that prevented votes from taking place for nearly a week has ended, at least temporarily. Far-right Republicans who expressed their displeasure with Speaker Kevin McCarthy by blocking the House from proceeding on legislation agreed Tuesday to allow a revised slate of bills to proceed.
